Provide Structured Language Experiences

Purpose

The purpose of Providing Structured Language Experiences is to provide students who have math learning problems teacher supported opportunities to use language to describe their mathematical understandings. Encouraging students to describe their math understanding orally or in writing helps students develop deeper levels of math understanding. Providing Structured Language Experiences is also an excellent way to help students move from a concrete or representational level of understanding to an abstract level of understanding.

What is it?

• A well-structured learning activity where your students have abundant opportunities to use language to describe their mathematical understanding.
• Students can verbally explain/describe their math understanding, they can write out their understanding, or they can draw pictures and then explain.
• Structured language experiences should be intentional in nature, meaning you provide the appropriate materials and an appropriate learning activity that allows students to describe what they understand in a supported environment.
• Students clearly understand the link between the activity and the concept/skill.
• Students receive feedback regarding their descriptions.
• It is a student practice strategy and should occur after you have provided initial instruction for the math concept/skill and after your students have demonstrated initial acquisition of the math concept/skill.

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What are the critical elements of this strategy?

• Structure
• Well-planned/intentional
• Multiple opportunities for students to describe their math understanding
• Teacher support and feedback
• Be conscious of individual student learning characteristics that may be barriers for responding through one type of response mode (e.g. students who have speech problems may prefer to write their explanations; students who have significant writing problems may prefer to verbally describe their understanding).
• Students have received prior teacher instruction for math concept/skill being described and have demonstrated at least initial acquisition of concept/skill at the concrete level of understanding.
• Use concrete materials when possible to assist students in describing their understanding.

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How do I implement the strategy?

1. Select a math concept/skill for which students have received prior instruction and for which they have demonstrated at least initial acquisition.
2. Develop a structured activity in which students can describe their math understanding. The activity should clearly relate the math concept/skill to the language activity (e.g. students should clearly "see" the relationship of the language activity to the particular math concept/skill they are describing).
3. Provide concrete objects to assist students in describing their understanding.
4. Plan alternative response opportunities for individual students whose learning characteristics create barriers for responding using one type of response mode (e.g. students who have speech problems may prefer to write their explanations; students who have significant writing problems may prefer to verbally describe their understanding).
5. Provide a system for students to receive feedback about their descriptions. The teacher monitors student elaborations in a systematic way, ensuring that every student receives feedback regarding their explanations (e.g. for smaller groups, the teacher does this individually; for larger groups, peer tutors evaluate each other's explanations while teacher monitors tutor pairs).
6. Teacher has opportunity to evaluate at least one explanation/description for every student.
7. Review activity by modeling an accurate description of the math concept/skill, providing appropriate cueing (e.g. "think alouds," visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile modalities).

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How Does This Instructional Strategy Positively Impact Students Who Have Learning Problems?

• Assists them to develop deeper levels of math conceptual understanding by providing them a supported way to express their understanding.
• Results in better memory storage and retrieval because students learn at a deeper level of understanding.
• Helps students to move from a concrete or representational level of understanding to an abstract level of understanding.
• Students have the opportunity to hear other students describe their understanding. When structure is provided and you monitor closely, students who have learning problems can learn well from peer interaction (see the instructional strategies Structured Cooperative Learning Groups & Structured Peer Tutoring).
• Provides you to the opportunity to evaluate the accuracy and level of your students' mathematical understandings.
• Always provide these students with alternative methods for describing what they know when a particular mode of expression is a barrier for them (e.g. oral expression problems, writing disabilities).
  

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Additional Information

Research Support for the Instructional Features of this Strategy: Baxter, Olson, and Woodward (2005); Englert, Garmon, Mariage, Rozendal, Tarrant, & Urba (1995), Englert and Mariage (1991); Gersten, Baker, and Edwards (1999); Graham and Harris (1989); Graham, Harris, and Larson (2001); Mason, Harris, and Graham (2002); Tomey (1998).

General Ideas for Language Experience Activities

The following ideas should always be implemented within the framework of Structured Language Experiences as described above, including the strategy's critical elements.

• Developing word/story problems from math equations or other math expressions.

• Drawing a picture to represent a math concept and then describing the picture.

• Developing a song or "rap" that demonstrates understanding of a math concept of math procedure (e.g. addition). Students can then write the song/rap and perform it for others. Videotaping student "performances" can be a very engaging activity for the students because they can watch each other on "TV." Videotape also provides you a concrete way to evaluate student understanding and it is an excellent authentic assessment product. Videotape can be easily shared with parents, administrators, and other teachers to demonstrate what students are learning.

• Developing "flash" cards for math operation signs and other symbols. Students draw the math symbol on one side and write/draw what that symbol means on the opposite side of the card. These can then be used for review and maintenance activities as well.

• Encouraging students to use concrete objects to describe their understanding. For example, students can demonstrate their understanding of perimeter by showing why two identical pattern block shapes or two different pattern block shapes have or don't have the same perimeter (e.g. place two identical pattern on top of each other and show that the sides are all equivalent; use a piece of yarn to show that two different shapes may also have the same perimeter - wrap the yarn around one shape's perimeter, mark the end on the yarn, and then show that the other shape has the same perimeter.).

• Students can replace math symbols with words to show they understand a particular math operation/process. For example, given the problem, "½ x ¼," the student can demonstrate his/her understanding of the multiplication process by replacing the "x" sign with the word "of" - " ½ of ¼ = 1/8." Following this by encouraging students to use concrete objects to show what "of" means is an excellent way to get students to extend their thinking (e.g. using a dry-erase pen or pencil to draw a line that separates a "1/4" fraction piece in half and then placing a "1/8" piece on top to show that one-half of a one-fourth piece is "one-eighth.

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Videos

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